Tag Archives: Truth

Have you ever been told that in the past? When you have a varying opinion from another’s, and the person wants you to see things the way they do, they say, “get real.”

But have you ever thought about what this means? I just did, and then I got inspired to write my first post since the release of my latest novella, Eyes (see the Free Books page).

In a world where everyone has their own interpretation of reality, what is “real”? One man’s reality is nothing but fiction to his neighbor, and the neighbor’s reality is nothing but fiction to one man. This suggests to me that the statement, “get real”, seeks to make one unreal just so they could be won over to our own thoughts, our own reality. But if they first of all have to be made unreal, can we truly say they are “getting real?”

Let’s face it. Each person’s life is their own reality. And everyone’s reality differs from the other.

So if everyone’s reality differs, how can there ever be common ground?

That’s where the only force that overrides reality comes in; Truth.

You see, to any given situation there can only be one truth. It doesn’t matter if the truth is not visible; it remains truth. It doesn’t matter if the stubborn try to reject it; truth is truth, and will always be truth.

Hate it. But it’s true.

Dispute it. But it’s still true.

Even deny it. It yet remains true.

If this is true (pun most definitely intended), how about this; instead of trying to make others to, ‘get real’, how about we make them, ‘get true’?

That agelong question that seems to be farther away from an answer with every passing generation. The longer the world remains, it seems, the less we know who we really are. And no, before you preempt this writer, I’m not insinuating that we now identify ourselves by what we do, I mean that we think we know ourselves, but really, we don’t.

We wake up in the morning and decide what we want to wear based on how we feel others will react to it.

We pick up habits and quirks opposite to our character just to gain recognition in the eyes of our friends (and sometimes enemies).

We hide our real traits not because we know they may be inappropriate, but because we are embarrassed to tell people, “Hey, this is who I really am!”

Peer pressure never really stops at school, I find. It graduated with you, took an interview at that firm with you, even got the same job you applied for. It’s an unwanted companion you can’t get away from. It’s really a subtle, yet strong, suggestion. One that could come from the people around you, the music you listen to, the movies you watch.

I’ve got to ask myself though: if I always dress because of what you’ll say (or think), talk a certain way because of you, change my habits, and pick up some few ones utterly dissimilar to those inherent in me simply because of you, you, you…

Notice how the quality of everything (except probably smartphones) is steadily dropping? While we are all modern and ‘21st Century’, hence dissociating ourselves from anything worthy to be referred to as “Old School”, the humble among us will admit, though very reluctantly (some blatantly), that there seems to be more quality in the works of old. We say things like, “Horror movies just aren’t what they used to be”, or “You just can’t get good music these days”. And this plagues mostly the intellectual and creative world. Ever wonder why people just aren’t doing what Michael Jackson used to do back in the day?

Here’s the real question: Who’s to say no one is doing what MJ did? Who’s to say no one is even making better music? What if the problem isn’t outside, but with us?

Hello, Apathy!

I dare say, the word apathy was probably created with this generation in mind. It isn’t that things aren’t of the same (or even higher) standards than before; we’ve only just evolved (or devolved) into the era of indifference. Perhaps the most used expression in the 21st century isn’t, “What’s up?”, but “It was just ok”. Hmmm…said that lately?

We are all incessantly searching for ‘the next big thing’.

The next big thing will never come, for when it does, ‘next’ is ‘now’, and ‘now’ is irrelevant—my definition of apathy.

So, while we can’t peek into the future and get a glimpse of the next big thing, we might as well step back into the past and relearn how to appreciate the little things.

It seems to me that human beings were wired to be different. Everyone has their own strengths, and everyone has their own weaknesses. But here is where it gets interesting; in our differences, we find our identities. Perhaps this is why we struggle to be different. We fight hard, with each waking moment, to be something that sets us apart from others. Perhaps that’s why the term “Tom, Dick, and Harry” is never used to reference oneself. It’s a separation technique.

Our differences make us. Our differences define us.

We have a certain way we walk. We have a certain way we talk. The shy and timid among us exhibit these differences only when we are in a crowd. We simply cannot imagine existing without a difference; it’ll be tantamount to existing without an identity.

But here’s my question: if every single person is struggling to be different, wouldn’t that really mean that we are, in truth, doing the same thing?

While you are making up your mind that you’ll be identified by your casual dressing, someone out there is making up their mind that they’ll be known for their formal dressing, but ultimately, you both are making up your minds that you’ll be known for your dress sense, thus doing the same darn thing. We think we are being different, without knowing that we are conforming to the same image.

I once asked my friends on Facebook a question: Does being a fiction writer make one an exceptional liar?

When you look at what we do, it seems we have the skills to fabricate outrageous tales that never happened—lies—and make you believe they did. The best of writers can even make you believe it was a personal experience; happened to me with Ted Dekker’s Circle series.

While I think that being a fiction writer can hone your lying skills, I believe that through those lies, we interpret “The Truth.”